27th April 2015 | International Solidarity Movement, Team Al Khalil | South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine
Located in the tip of the West Bank, the South Hebron Hills are dotted with farming and shepherd communities.
We are currently in the wheat harvest season and the children are spending their last few weeks at school before the holiday break.
But just like everywhere else in Palestine, the population is threatened by the Israeli occupation and the illegal settlements that overlook, menace and harm their daily lives.
“Existence is resistance”
At-Tuwani – village in the South Hebron Hills where an Italian organisation, Operation Dove, is located, helping provide international presence in the area.School children amusing themselves before taking the dangerous walk home.Israeli jeep accompanies the children on their walk to and from school. The path is squashed between a settlement and an outpost, which make the children at risk of settler attacks.Palestinians harvesting their land. They are at constant risk of being attacked by the illegal settler outpost overlooking them.Donkeys are a common way of getting around in the area.Nestled in the hills, about a 40 minute walk from At-Tuwani, lies the community of Tuba.Part of Tuba communityLike many other communities in the South Hebron Hills, people live inside caves.Inside one of the caves. Mattresses get spread around the floor in the evening to chat, share meals, watch tv and lay their heads.TV inside the cave. Electricity is powered by their wind turbine.The second to youngest of Tuba, posing in front of the pile of mattresses.Sheep running to their morning meal.Communal breakfast for the sheep of Tuba.The family’s breakfast – composed mainly of products that came from within a radius of 50 metres from their home. Bread from their wheat, eggs from their chickens, cheese and butter from their goats.Hiding away from the view of settlers and soldiers, men and women harvest their land.Bundles of wheat collected during the harvest season.Donkeys are used to carry the harvested crops.A goat is born.Sheep lined up reading for milking.
5th March 2015 | Operation Dove | South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine
On the morning of February 28, Israeli police arrested two Palestinian shepherds as they grazed their flock in the valley of Umm Zeitouna near the Israeli settlement of Ma’on.
In late morning the security chief of Ma’on settlement and Israeli soldiers arrived in Umm Zeitouna valley where the shepherds, accompanied by international volunteers, were grazing their flock on land which Israeli settlers from Ma’on are attempting to annex. After a few minutes the Israeli police arrived and they immediately detained two shepherds and two international volunteers. At about 12.30 pm Israeli police arrested the two shepherds and took them to Kyriat Arba police station. The volunteers were released. The Palestinians were released at about 3 pm, after paying a fine of 500 NIS for each person.
Still from video Operation Dove took of the arrests (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZFpsum27Hk)
Residents of the South Hebron Hills experience continual harassment from settlers in nearby settlements and outposts, but remain steadfast in their commitment to nonviolent resistance. Each day that they graze their sheep in contested areas, the shepherds continue to resist settler attempts to drive them from their lands. International volunteers have witnessed shepherds chased from Umm Zeitouna six times since the start of the year (in five of these occasions the Israeli army came after a settler’s call).
The arrest followed a nonviolent action that morning during which residents successfully repaired the road which links At-Tuwani village to Yatta, and the attendance on February 27 of the South Hebron Hills Popular Resistance Committee at the 10th anniversary nonviolent action in Bil’in.
Photo by Operation DovePhoto by Operation Dove
These are two examples of the commitment of the South Hebron hills people to use nonviolence to resist the occupation, both in their own communities and throughout Palestine. The life of South Hebron Hills residents is one of a daily resistance to the Israeli occupation.
22nd February 2015 | Operation Dove | South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine
On the morning of February 20, Palestinians in the South Hebron Hills awoke to find that 36 olive trees had been cut or seriously damaged during the night, probably by Israeli settlers. The 25 year-old trees, owned by the Hushiy family from Yatta, were located near the village of Qawawis in the South Hebron Hills, between the Israeli illegal outpost of Mitzpe Yair and the Israeli settlement of Suseya, beside Bypass road 317.
The Hushiy family’s damaged olive trees – photo by Operation DoveOlive tree cut by Israeli settlers from illegal settlements in the South Hebron Hills – photo by Operation Dove
This is the third incident of Israeli settler ‘price tag’ vandalism against the Palestinian inhabitants of the South Hebron Hills in the last two months. On January 9, in the same area between the Bypass road 317 and Suseya settlement, Palestinians discovered nearly 200 olive trees cut on their property. On December 31, two settlers threw a molotov cocktail into a Palestinian house in Ad Deirat village.
Palestinian residents of the South Hebron hills have suffered from the presence of Israeli settlers since the 70s. By occupying Palestinian agricultural lands and destroying Palestinian olive trees, crops and property the settlers seek to deprive the Palestinians of their main livelihood. Ongoing settler violence deprives Palestinian families of security in daily life, and restricts their freedom of movement.
According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are also considered illegal also under Israeli law.
Despite attempts by settlers to force them from the area through violence and intimidation, the Palestinian communities of the South Hebron Hills remain strong in their commitment to nonviolent popular resistance against the Israeli occupation.
Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and South Hebron Hills since 2004.
8th February 2015 | Operation Dove | South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine
On the morning of February 6, Israeli soldiers arrested two Palestinian shepherds, one of them aged sixteen. The soldiers tried to arrest another Palestinian shepherd but villagers prevented the arrest by popular nonviolent action.
The two young Palestinian shepherds arrested by the Israeli military – Photo by Operation Dove
At about 10:40 a.m. four Palestinian shepherds were grazing their flocks on Khelly valley, in the South Hebron Hills area village of At-Tuwani, when the security chief of the Ma’on settlement arrived and called the Israeli army to prevent the shepherds from using land that is the object of settlement expansion. At 10:55 a.m. an Israeli Army jeep arrived in Khelly area and the soldiers started to run after the shepherds.
Soldiers pursuing the shepherd boys over the hills of At Tuwani – Photo by Operation Dove
The shepherds, who are all young boys, were scared and began to run away. The soldiers caught one Palestinian shepherd and immobilized him on the ground.
The soldiers grabbed a young shepherd in a chokehold, dragging him to the ground – Photo by Operation Dove
Meanwhile Palestinians from At-Tuwani reached the soldiers and, by a nonviolent popular action, freed the shepherds. The soldiers then drove after three of the shepherds as they moved their sheep back to their village. One shepherd was able to run away while the others two were prevented from leaving by the soldiers. At around 11:30 a.m. the soldiers put them inside the army jeep and drove away. At about 8 p.m. the Palestinians were released.
The two young shepherds being put into the army jeep – Photo by Operation Dove
This is the fifth time since the beginning of this year that Palestinian shepherds have been harassed in the Khelly area. The Israeli administration declared Khelly valley a “closed military area” in September 2013, and it is the site of frequent threats and violence by Israeli settlers and Israeli armed forces. This valley is Palestinian property where the Palestinians continue to resist with their daily work, despite of all the restrictions.
21st January 2015 | Operation Dove | South Hebron Hills, Occupied Palestine
On January 20th, Israeli forces detained a Palestinian child near the village of Maghayir Al Abeed and demolished four structures in the Palestinian village of Ar-Rifa’iyya in the South Hebron Hills area.
Photo by Operation Dove.
At about 9.00 a.m. Israeli bulldozers started to tear down two houses and two animal shelters, belonging to the Palestinian Rabai family in Ar-Rifa’iyya. The demolitions affected a total of twenty-five people, included ten children.
Photo by Operation Dove.
The Municipality erected two tents to create temporary shelter for those effected, at least during the night. Only twenty days ago, on December 31, in the village of Ad-Deirat, close to Ar-Rifa’iyya, two settlers broke a window and threw a molotov cocktail inside a Palestinian-owned house, trying to burn it,
Ar-Rifa’iyya and Ad-Deirat villages are located in Area C, under full Israeli military and administrative control.
During the Ar-Rifa’iyya demolitions, Israeli army and police jeeps reached the area of Old Havat Ma’on Hill near the Palestinian village of Maghayir Al Abeed, where some young Palestinian shepherds were grazing their flocks. An Israeli soldier run to a Palestinian child, aged 14. The soldier chased away his flock, placed him inside the military jeep with one goat and detained him. After one hour, the Israeli army released him in a dangerous area between the illegal outpost of Havat Ma’on and the illegal settlement of Ma’on. In this place several times, Palestinians, including children, were attacked by Zionist settlers.
Palestinian Prisoners Center for Studies stated that during 2014, Israeli soldiers arrested 1200 Palestinian children, a 60% increase from 2013, when 750 children were arrested.
Despite demolitions and arrests, Palestinians from South Hebron Hills are strongly committed to nonviolent and popular resistance against the Israeli occupation.
Operation Dove has maintained an international presence in At-Tuwani and the South Hebron Hills since 2004.
[Note: According to the Fourth Geneva Convention, the Hague Regulations, the International Court of Justice, and several United Nations resolutions, all Israeli settlements and outposts in the Occupied Palestinian Territories are illegal. Most settlement outposts, including Havat Ma’on (Hill 833), are considered illegal also under Israeli law.]
